Fourth Edition Preview -- A whole lot of talents
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Re: Fourth Edition Preview -- A whole lot of talents
Is it acceptable for GMs to have players die in combat?
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Re: Fourth Edition Preview -- A whole lot of talents
[The following applies to all RPGs] As long as it's been known about up-front, i.e. the GM goes over how death and post-death stuff (resurrection, etc) works in the game. Take 'The Mountain Witch" for example, a game of ronin samurai climbing Mt. Fuji to kill the sorcerer at the top. Each character gets a karma/action dice called "Trust", one for every other PC in the group. They use this to aid each other, but because of the Dark Secret mechanic, any one of them could be working for the sorcerer and blow their whole Trust pool to Betray one other PC. They can still do this after they die, but this is the only mechanic dead players have left, they cant really use anything else on their sheet (beside the Dark Secret storytelling device).
You need to know hoe that stuff works up front, as a player, to set expectations of how the game you are going to play works.
[For Earthdawn] The setting descriptions usually clues people into the fact that Earthdawn is a deadly world. People perk up when you hear "we had to hide in underground magical bomb shelters from the Kaiju-lovecratian-things for hundreds of years... and some of them are still out there". I always try to follow up a mention of the Horrors with a segue into the Passions, how they collaborated to trap Death beneath Death's Sea, and what that means in regards to Healing Magic & stories like J'role stealing his soul back.
You need to know hoe that stuff works up front, as a player, to set expectations of how the game you are going to play works.
[For Earthdawn] The setting descriptions usually clues people into the fact that Earthdawn is a deadly world. People perk up when you hear "we had to hide in underground magical bomb shelters from the Kaiju-lovecratian-things for hundreds of years... and some of them are still out there". I always try to follow up a mention of the Horrors with a segue into the Passions, how they collaborated to trap Death beneath Death's Sea, and what that means in regards to Healing Magic & stories like J'role stealing his soul back.
- Flowswithdrek
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Re: Fourth Edition Preview -- A whole lot of talents
Sure, its perfectly acceptable for a character to die in combat. Really, if its not then lets do away with the Death Rating, one less stat to worry about. One of the thrills of a RPG is that as a player you get to call the life and death decisions. Unlike a movie or novel the script isn't written in an RPG. You get to decide if your response is fight or flight (or something else completely). You get to decide if you take on that Horror that might rip you limb from limb or go on another adventure to find the only known adept that fought it and lived, to learn about it.
I don't hold to the well balanced encounter idea (most of the time). However, my players will know when the odds are stacked against them, and they get to decide what they want to do about it, go in, all blades swinging, or find a way to balance the odds first. I agree that losing combat does not always equal death as defeat can lead to all manner of interesting scenarios. I'm always happy to fudge the occasional role. I don't want characters dying needlessly and I don't kill them off wholesale, but just knowing that death is an option brings a whole new dimension to a game.
I don't hold to the well balanced encounter idea (most of the time). However, my players will know when the odds are stacked against them, and they get to decide what they want to do about it, go in, all blades swinging, or find a way to balance the odds first. I agree that losing combat does not always equal death as defeat can lead to all manner of interesting scenarios. I'm always happy to fudge the occasional role. I don't want characters dying needlessly and I don't kill them off wholesale, but just knowing that death is an option brings a whole new dimension to a game.
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- Flowswithdrek
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